


The Chrysanthemum's Cat

by Ignicula



Category: God Eater (Video Games), God Eater 3
Genre: Cats being cats, Fluff, M/M, both literal and figurative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:08:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23488870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ignicula/pseuds/Ignicula
Summary: So far as the AGEs of the Hounds are concerned, if it isn't humanoid, it's generally dangerous. The same attitude is generally held to the resident feline, Mr. Sleepypaws. Thankfully, Ricardo is here to help coach them in cat handling... and maybe the cat will teach them something as well.
Relationships: Hugo Pennywort/Male Protagonist
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	The Chrysanthemum's Cat

**Author's Note:**

> Just a bit of shenanigans with the local cat.

For as long as Hugo Pennywort had been aboard the Chrysanthemum, Mr. Sleepypaws the Cat had been a bit of an enigma. To start with, he’d never seen a cat before he found the sleeping animal sprawled across some of the instruments on the bridge, snoozing away. He hadn’t exactly known what to make of it… or do with it. Hilda had gotten a good chuckle out of it to his expense when she explained it to him, and ever since then he hadn’t really liked the cat. It had, after all, at least partially ruined the first impression he made with the Chrysanthemum’s Owner. That was something that had wounded his pride a little… though no way could he admit it. If he did, even his reputation amongst the hounds would crumble even if just a little. 

He could tell Luca wasn’t too sure of the creature either, if the way he kept locating the animal at every chance he got was any indicator. Hugo would watch sometimes as Luca just walked up to the creature, stared at it as if waiting for something to happen, and then left, all the while casting glances over his shoulder. Nobody else really paid the thing any heed; Amy put out food for it, and it would go eat when nobody was looking. In terms of interactions with the humans, god eaters, humanoid aragami and AGEs onboard, that was all he’d ever seen of it. 

_ It looks kind of soft. _

Lulu had called that to his attention with an idle comment, but as of yet none of the ages had actually worked up the nerve to actually go up and touch the thing yet. Even if it was small and a normal animal, he, Luca, Keith, Zeke, and Lulu had all been raised in an environment in which anything that wasn’t humanoid was probably going to tear you to pieces if you got near it. 

It takes a moment for him to remember that he’s on the bridge, and that intently staring at the cat like it’s going to jump up and do a dance is probably not the best thing for his image, but it’s too late. He hears a chuckle and turns to see Ricardo approaching. “It’s not going to attack you, you know.”

He’s not sure how to respond to that, so he huffs, and then acts as though he hadn’t heard that bit. “Yo, Ricardo. Did you need something?”

“Nah, just caught you staring at Sleepypaws like it’s possessed.”

“It?” Hugo asks, intrigued. “Not he or she?” He’d assumed Ricardo had known.

“Eh, it’s probably a he, considering Hilda named it ‘Mr.’ Sleepypaws.” Ricardo shrugged. “I haven’t checked though, and I don’t plan on it. Anyways, you don’t have to be so freaked out about it. The worst it can do is scratch you up a bit if you’re rude to it.”

Hugo raised an eyebrow. “I’m not scared of it.”

“Sure thing.” Ricardo replied. “Though considering how you grew up… I suppose you hadn’t seen one of these guys before now. They used to be quite common.”

“They were?” He asks.

“Yeah. This guy’s called a common housecat - there were probably just as many of them as there were humans before the Great Collapse. Animals of any kind are rare now, so of course you don’t see them as much.” Of course, the Aragami didn’t just eat humans after all. 

“Where did Hilda get him?”

“From what I’ve heard, someone brought some cats with them when they moved into the Chrysanthemum, and one of them ran away and had kittens. The ‘mum had a bunch of strays for a few years after that, and Sleepypaws here was one of them. Hilda just found him onboard the ash crawler one day and decided to keep him.”

So Sleepypaws was just another stray that Hilda had taken in… just like the hounds in several ways. “And he just stayed?”

Ricardo snorts. “I’m not sure whether or not you’ve noticed, but that guy doesn’t exactly move much. Sometimes he wanders, but he never moves when people can see him. Weird little cat.”

He hadn’t exactly expected the resident hairball to have a story like that, but it was somewhat interesting to learn. In any case, Hugo had other things he could be doing. He opens his mouth to tell Ricardo this, but the other man seems keen on continuing.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any of you AGE kids so much as come in arm’s reach of it. I guess it must just be an AGE thing.” Ricardo states. “You’re missing out.”

“How so?” Hugo asks.

“Try petting it, if you don’t mind getting a bit of cat hair on you.” Ricardo says. “It’s oddly therapeutic.”

He’s not sure how touching some animal would be therapeutic, but Ricardo seems sincere. “Why is…”

“Just give it a try.” The man interrupts him. “You’ll see.”

Dubious, Hugo takes a step up to the cat. It continues sleeping. He raises his hand, but stops before he can touch the cat, a strange form of anxiety in his stomach.  _ It’ll probably bite me.  _ Feline types were ferocious, often even more so than other kinds of aragami. Besides, he’d touched a Vajra before on accident and all that had happened was an electric shock. Why would…

Right. This isn’t an aragami. This was just a sleepy little creature that lurked around the ship. He scowls to himself.  _ Maybe Ricardo was right about me being afraid of it… That’s pretty lame of me. _

He forces down his apprehension and lets his hand rest on its side.

_ Soft. _

It really was soft; soft and fluffy in a way that nothing he’d ever touched before was. It was also very warm. Taking Ricardo’s advice, he started running his hand over the cat’s fur, and slowly a rumbling sound emerged from it’s chest. He takes more time to pet the cat, scratching it between the ears, rubbing it under the chin and letting it rub on his hand when he petted it. It never opens its eyes during the entire interaction.

_ What a lazy cat,  _ he thinks to himself, a small smile on his face. 

“So? Looks like it didn’t bite you.” Ricardo jokes. “Feeling a bit more confident with the resident feline?”

Hugo looks away, hand reaching towards the cat’s belly. “You were right, this is…” He sees Ricardo’s face twist in alarm and his mouth open in the beginning of a warning when suddenly several pinpricks of pain close over Hugo’s wrist. Hugo swears, trying to jerk his hand out of the jaws of the feline, only for it to wrap its entire body around his arm and start  _ shredding  _ with his back claws. Hugo fears what could have happened if he didn’t have thick sleeves. “Oww! Get off!” He pries the cat off, and it sprints off faster than he’s ever seen anyone but Luca move and hissing all the while. It’s gone in an instant and Hugo is left to nurse his hand.

“You were saying?” He demands, glaring at Ricardo in a betrayed fashion.

“...Cats tend to hate it when you try and pet their stomachs.”

“You could have told me that earlier!” Hugo huffed.

O

Needless to say, Hugo did not pet the cat for a good while after that.

O

Eventually, he forgave the little hell creature… after his hand healed and the tiny tooth and claw scars finally disappeared. In that time the other AGEs, who had heard of Hugo’s failed attempt to befriend the cat, had been keeping even more distance from it than usual. Even Luca gave it a wide berth, and Hugo felt kind of bad for it whenever its ears drooped as Luca stayed away.

He sighs and reaches over to the cat again, slowly, after one such incident. “Alright, alright. I forgive you. Just don’t bite me again, okay?”

It purrs loudly and rubs its head against his hand happily with a little chirping mrow. 

O

It does, as a matter of fact, bite him again. He just can’t stay mad at it for long.

O

He and the cat develop a sort of strange companionship. It now frequented his workplace along with Hilda’s and Amy’s, oftentimes making its way into the male dormitory if someone left the door open for too long and taking one of the beds for itself. Naturally, if it took Keith or Zeke’s beds, they would end up sleeping on the couches. If it took Hugo’s, he’d just dump the cat out of it. It hissed at him when he did that, but would forgive him later on and probably never remember it. Eventually the other AGEs started to warm up to the creature as well… which leads to what he’s doing now.

He’s sitting down, a tablet in hand, on a chair situated next to one of the ash crawler’s terminals. He’s been there for a while, hence the chair being moved into the room, and Luca is sitting on the seat behind him next to a stack of books. On top of that stack, between him and his partner, is the cat, waiting for attention.

“How’s work going?” Luca asks.

“No progress so far.” Hugo replied with a sigh. He’s trying to finish sorting through the requests they’d gotten recently into high and low priority; they’d gotten a mass of fifty requests at once and they couldn’t fulfill them all with their resources and transportation… not at once, at least. He was contacting every last one of the senders to find out how urgent they are, but so far everyone is demanding top priority. He’s planning on giving it to Gleipnir simply because Gleipnir could easily cause them even more problems in the future if they didn’t, but considering the fact that the main force of the Hounds is made up of AGEs people still thought they should automatically jump to fulfill every single request made as if the senders were gods. 

Hugo killed gods. So did Luca, for that matter, and the latter did so much better than Hugo did.

“Should I beat them up?” Luca asks, both completely innocent and completely serious at the same time.

Hugo snorts. “I don’t think it’ll help our reputation if you beat up our employers every time they’re rude to us, Luca.”

“They deserve it though.” 

He just chuckles again and pets the cat. It rubs on his hand. “Well, I can automatically put the requests from Baran and Pennywort on the back burner. I’ll give priority to the request of The Dusty Miller as thanks for all their help… we’ll have to do all the local ones first.” He begins making a list. “We can do these two as we head to the miller.”

“Mrrrr.” He’s reminded of the cat’s presence as it meows, and he reaches over to pet it. His hand misses the first time, but the second time it lands on something soft, which he immediately starts petting. 

Wait.

That doesn’t feel right.

“Um. Hugo.”

Hugo nearly drops the tablet. He removes his hand swiftly. “Uh, sorry. I thought…”

“...The cat jumped down.” Luca says. “Also... It’s fine, I don’t mind.”

“Mrrrrow!”

He turns around just in time to see Sleepypaws fall asleep in the middle of the floor, looking all too smug for its own good. 

_ You did this on purpose, didn’t you? _

It licks a paw sleepily, as if washing its hands of the whole thing. 

And somehow, Hugo can’t even feel mad at the creature.

_...Luca’s hair was really soft too. _

**Author's Note:**

> The cat knows all. There is no hiding anything from them, and once they know... be prepared for their little acts of 'help'.  
> Even if it means they have to give up cuddles for it in this case.


End file.
